Ph.D. student Academy of Performing Arts in Prague, Hlavni mesto Praha, Czech Republic
Surround sound has been in almost every cinema for several decades. In 2012, Dolby, Inc. announced a new spatial audio format – Dolby Atmos with object-based audio approach. Thanks to it, sound designers can take advantage of more precise positioning of sounds in space. This paper examines whether the listeners can perceive the position of sounds with higher precision compared to 5.1 and 7.1. Listening tests with 127 respondents were conducted to compare perceived position of six samples, each of them reproduced in 5.1, 7.1 and Atmos. Results do not show increased precision of spatial localization when using object audio; however, further analysis shows significantly different perception of sound positions among the examined formats based on the listener’s position.
Authors: Tomas Oramus (Academy of Performing Arts in Prague) and Petr Neubauer (Academy of Performing Arts in Prague)
